Paga gets USD2m grant

VALUE ADDED SERVICES

Nigerian financial services platform Paga has received a USD2 million grant to develop low cost financial products.

Paga, launched in 2009, enables users to transfer money via their mobile phones, internet devices, several banks, credit cards or a network of agents.

It has been awarded a USD2 million grant from EFInA, an independent, professional and non-profit organization funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the United Kingdom Department for International Development (DFID).

According to Modupe Ladipo, Executive Director and Managing Director for EFInA: “With over 59 million unbanked adults, finding new ways of reaching out to this market and bring low cost financial services is a major challenge we aim to address. By bringing low cost services to every neighbourhood, we believe we can help bring a large number of Nigerians out of poverty and improve living standards.

We have chosen Paga for this grant because of the robustness of their plans and strength of their team. We are confident that by working together we can achieve our mutual goal of universal access to financial services for Nigerians.”

Tayo Oviosu, CEO and Founder of Paga further states "Our team is very honoured to receive this grant from EFInA. As is core to our multi-stakeholder approach at Paga, we will be working with partners such as Diamond Bank, LAPO − Nigeria's largest Micro Finance Institution, ADIC and GT Assur to develop and deliver low cost financial services to all Nigerians at our agents.

The EFInA grant will fund our work in this area and the much needed public education required for success. Our goal is to bring financial services to over 40 million Nigerians by 2015 − with this grant our objectives will be even more achievable."